your morning with us. we have so much more for you on cnn sunday morning which begins right now. from the cnn world headquarters in atlanta, this is "cnn sunday morning." >> folks, this could be bad. >> ten million without power, more than $3 billion in damage, seven to ten days in the dark, just some of the threats here from hurricane sandy. another number for you -- nine. nine days until election day. campaign plans in disarray because of the storm here. obviously already affecting the election and happenings on the trail. and the hunt for bin laden from inside the white house. author mark boden's account of what really happened that day in may, 2011. good sunday morning to you. i'm brooke baldwin in for randi

kaye here this sunday. it is 7:00 on the east coast. 4:00 on the west. thank you very much for starting your morning here on cnn. i do want to begin far westward. the tsunami fears in hawaii this morning we morning. we're talking about this because it's been triggered by a massive earthquake off the western coast of canada. take a look at pictures with me. these are live pictures you'll see in a second. beautiful pictures here, hawaii, the coast, we're watching the waves rolling in, evacuation orders have been issued. tsunami warnings are out. officials urging people to evacuate. local hawaiian officials are warning the tsunami waves are not at all over yet. from tsunami to hurricane, we go here on this sunday. we're watching hurricane sandy for you. we're seeing tropical storm warnings extending from south carolina to virginia as hurricane sandy heads northeast at about 13 miles per hour. here she is churning. people now rushing to get

sandbags and flashlights, water, supplies here. the center of the storm is more than 200 miles off the soviet of cape hatteras in north carolina. but it's already causing dangerous surf, powerful winds, bonnie schneider is here with me in the severe weather center. bonnie, good morning. >> good morning. >> hurricane heading northeastward now. tell me where she is now. >> as you mentioned, the storm is a couple hundred miles away. we're feeling the effects now. we're not feeling the worst of it yet. you mentioned the sandbags and storm preps, i want to emphasize the loss of power that's likely to occur with a system like this. make sure everybody in your home has enough food and water for three days per person. don't forget your pets because we're looking at the substantial power outages. i'll show you that in a moment. right now, the storm a category 1 hurricane. a little disorganized, but this storm is so unusual for many, many factors. you see the track curve its back to the northwest. and we're looking at landfall

possibly tuesday. in advance of the storm especially monday, we'll be feeling wind and rain. it's going to be a mess. on the back side, we're going to get snow. now look at the power outages. this isn't a typical situation. these are some of the most populated cities in the u.s. new york, philadelphia. over ten million people might be impacted in terms of power outages. and that holds true at cleveland, ohio, pittsburgh, pennsylvania. so we'll be talking about the hundreds of thousands to likely the millions of people that are impacted by one storm, strong winds coming in. flooding rains for days. that's a long-lasting event in terms of flooding and storm surge depending where the storm makes landfall. here's an example of storm surge we may epa. on the jersey shore, for example, at the time of high tide. that's substantial, four to eat feet. we'll see how close it comes to new york city, whether or not there will have to be evacuations like we saw with irene. we have evacuations for fire island, though. a low-lying barrier island on the south shore of long island.

and you know, you can't take this seriously enough. storm surge is very dangerous. flooding is the leading killer in any kind of hurricanes. this is no ordinary hurricane. this one is a big event. we'll be talking about it throughout the morning. brooke? >> appreciate it. bonnie mentioned north carolina. let's go straight to the coastal area. outer banks, kill devil hills. george howl is standing by for us in an area already very much so apparently getting hit by this hurricane. and george, as i wait to see your picture, i -- here you are, is the rain coming down? >> reporter: yeah, brooke. the rain definitely coming in. it's that sideways rain. combined with sand, helping to -- a good indication that the storm is getting much closer to us. we're in an area, the northwestern quadrant of the storm. that is where you see the storm bringing in bands of heavy rain. these bands of winds that are coming in. in fact, that band right now stretches from wilmington, north

carolina up to norfolk. this is a good indication of what is to come as the storm continues to track north and make the hook into the metro areas of new york, philadelphia, and washington, d.c. brooke, i can tell you here we do know of some damage already. this coastal highway 12, really the only way in and out along the outer banks. water is over the highway in places south of us. and this were a lot of people who decided to ride the storm out so people who decided to stay, especially in that area, they are staying there and waiting to see as the storm passes. >> george, we could really hear that the wind -- the wind whipping. tell me because it's difficult to see, what do the waves look like behind you there? >> reporter: right. and within the next hour i'm sure we'll be able to see it a little better. you can tell out there the water is rough. and there's a problem with coastal erosion, with beach erosion i should say.

that's going to be a big issue as this storm passes through this area. but you can tell the storm surge from estimates i've seen to be from four to six feet. people concerned about storm surge, about flooding and of course the rain that the storm brings through this north carolina area. >> george howell, stay safe for us in kill devil hills. we'll check back in. thank you. heading northward to new york, the office of emergency management there, they're preparing for the worst here. buses, subways, commuter trains may all have to suspend service if the area is hit hard by sandy. governor of new york, andrew cuomo, warning the metro transportation authority to prepare and prepare immediately. a final decision to suspend service will be made, we're told, later today. they are warning people now that there is no guarantee of service after 7:00 tonight. after 7:00 p.m. eastern. no guarantee. new jersey could absolutely take a direct hit from hurricane

sandy. homes and businesses along the east coast, they're boarding up. just yesterday, governor chris christie declared a state of emergency. he also issued a mandatory evacuation for the state's barrier islands and for atlantic city casinos. >> good morning i formally declared a state of emergency in anticipation of hurricane sandy which is expected to be a severe and a potentially devastateding storm that will hit new jersey beginning sunday night. and be in full force by monday. >> that's new jersey. let's take you to our nation's capital. store shelves in d.c. quickly clearing as people who are heading to the stores are stocking up, preparing for the worst in the hurricane. the mayor, vincent gray, declared a state of emergency just yesterday. and city workers have already prepared, prepping for cleanup post storm. city leaders say they will maintain contact with people live there through social media,

twitter, facebook, et cetera there's also been a state of emergency declared in maryland, annapolis. they are moving sand and sandbags in places to protects people, buildings, businesses. city officials there hope that these initial precautions will help block any of the floodwaters, any of that suspected storm surge. watchle this here. utility trucks rolling out, this is chicago. 240 trucks headed out to help with the arrival of the hurricane. com-ed says the trucks and crews will stay as long as they're necessary help to see help with expected power outages because of hurricane sandy. and this hurricane we keep talking about, this is not just a dangerous storm. this could have an impact on the election that is nine days away from today. president obama in fact had to cancel some of his campaign events tomorrow and tuesday, including final trips to

virginia and colorado. crucial swing states. instead we're told the president will be spending more time in the white house monitoring the storm as it approaches. as for mitt romney, he is having to make changes, as well here. he's canceled all of his campaign events in virginia. instead, he will now join running mate paul ryan on a tour of another swing state, ohio. the nominee will campaign in iowa, wisconsin, and new hampshire through tuesday. breaking news not just on sandy but on the hawaiian tsunami advisory. stay with us for the latest and more about sandy's projected path, how you can help, go to our impact your world web site, cnn.com/impact. and as we've seen, people are getting ready to evacuate from the path of the hurricane, as we saw in north carolina. people sticking around to ride this thing out. the issue is they're not all sure their homes will still be there when they return.

here's a look at how people really up and down the east coast are preparing for what could be an historic storm. one of the biggest concerns about this storm is that it is both a huge storm and a slow-moving storm. >> folks, this could be bad. really bad. it could impact us in several ways and for a long period of time. please take this as seriously as we are taking it. >> understand that this slow storm unlike some others that we've had is going to be -- is forecast to be a slow moving one. >> getting water for my household because of the storm. >> just wanted make sure that we're prepared with plenty of

sandbags around our back patio so the water doesn't get into our house or -- trying to be proactive here. >> i think it's going to rain pretty well. and why have trouble if you can get sand and block that up and not have water come in your house versus some come in. >> i was assured we wouldn't have to worry about a hurricane until november. that's why i'm here. we've gotten a surprise, so we'll just ride it out. not much else we can do. >> put a line on the back piling. we're working the storm. we're not sure exactly where it's going to hit or how strong it's going to be. we're taking precautions, yeah. >> alexandria's had a couple of bad storms over the years, particularly two this year where people lost power for an extended period of time. i think they're smarter this

time, getting batteries. >> heeding the warning, and we're going. and i'm -- i'm hoping i'll have a house when i come back. >> you have to be nervous for your properties, your businesses. >> i'm concerned but i don't have nowhere to go. so i'm hunkering down and going to do the best i can. [ male announcer ] imagine facing the day

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aw! camera shy. snapshot from progressive. test-drive snapshot before you switch. visit progressive.com today. we have seen a new message from al qaeda's leader calling for the kidnapping of americans. this is a chilling reminder of the threat that al qaeda still very much poses even with the death of osama bin laden and speaking of, now this new fascinating book, it chronicles a decision to kill the most wanted terrorist in the world. author mark bowden was given unprecedented access to the white house, to the president, to write this book. called "the finish: the killing of osama bin laden." mark bowden joins me here from washington. mark, good morning to you. and just so our viewers understand, you and steve croft of cbs, you were the only two of all the journalists globally who asked for this kind of access to the president, you got it. >> yeah. >> given this access, when you

spoke with president obama, what was the one thing he told you about this raid that most surprised you? >> well, really i think it was that when admiral mcraven first outlined the mission, what it would take to send the squadron of s.e.a.l.s. into abbottabad, the admiral recommended if they woke pennsylvania's military and were confronted -- woke up pennsylvan pakistan's military and were confronted -- they thought that admiral mcraven would have been more aggressive on this point, but president obama said, no, if you're going in, i want you to be prepared to fight your way out because we're not going to leave those men at the mercy of our negotiations with pakistan. >> and finish. and finish. and i think it's interesting, the title of your book. it comes from an acronym for find, fix, finish. what does that mean, what does that mean in conjunction with this wade? >> right.

well, the -- since 9/11 there's been a remarkable evolution of capability of tracing invisible terrorist networks. finding the key individuals within those networks. fixing their locations, exactly where they are. and by fixing it, i mean not just where they generally are, but specifically at a given moment. then finish, to either kill or capture them. so that's what that means. and of course, bin laden was the big finish in that sense. >> what about -- take me back, mark, to that evening or the early morning hours in may of 2011. the raid and will we ever know who that s.e.a.l. was that pulled the final, fatal trigger? >> i would have said maybe six months ago, no, we would never know. i think now we will. as you know, brooke, one s.e.a.l. has come forward and told his story. he doesn't say so in so many words, but in his account he

says he delivered the coup de grace. but i think it's likely that we will hear from more people involved and there will be small discrepancies in their accounts. there's not that much new to learn about what exactly happened. >> what about that photo, mark? you know the photo i'm talking about where we see from the evening, you have the president, vice president, and you have -- secretary of defense, secretary of state, here they are, sitting around, watching this raid happen. did you ever ask the president about that? what was actually happening in that moment when this picture was snapped? >> i did. you know, what they were watching was an overhead video feed from a sentinel drone. and they saw one of the black hawk helicopters set down suddenly inside the compound. they couldn't tell whether it had crashed or landed. but they knew that the mission didn't call for that to happen. the helicopters were supposed to rope in the s.e.a.l. teams, then move outside of the compound and land outside its walls.

so suddenly this helicopter went down right in the middle of the compound. they didn't know yet exactly what it happened. they knew this was not supposed to happen. >> i have so many more questions for you. but i have to leave it there. mark bowden, let's let everyone know, the book is called "the finish: the killing of osama bin laden." appreciated it this morning. thank you. >> thank you, brooke. it's a story we first brought you last week of the string of mysterious shootings in michigan. now police have new details, ahead. right from the video. great idea, we can pick one and frame it! here, watch this. she nails almost every move. our old camera could never do this. she's so good at ballet. i think she's the best in the class. where is she by the way? in time out. oh. and that one! [ male announcer ] take a photo straight from video and never miss a moment. the htc one x from at&t now $99.99. at&t. rethink possible.

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here's what's happening now. 23 minutes past the hour. in hawaii the tsunami warning has been downgraded to an advisory. these are live pictures here.

the coastal flooding could be a problem. the tsunami was all triggered by this magnitude 7.7 earthquake that hit the western canadian coach the queen charlotte islands late saturday night. 23 aftershocks measuring 4.1 or greater have been measured since that original quake. and two more random shootings in michigan here over the weekend. that grand total now at 24 in less than two weeks. and for the first time, someone's been hit. a driver suffering non-life-threatening injuries was hit by a bullet yesterday. both shootings happened on interstate 96 eastbound, southeastern michigan. police still have no idea what's behind the shootings which began 12 days ago. hurricane sandy barreling toward the east coast. and it's not just rain, it's not just the wind. a lot of people should be worried about here -- add this to the mix, snow. snow could be a huge problem, too.

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trust icy hot for powerful relief. [ male announcer ] the icy hot patch. goes on icy to dull pain, hot to relax it away. so you're back to full speed. [ male announcer ] icy hot. power past pain. want to give you an idea as how massive this hurricane is. this is a view from space, captured by the international space station. we learned this week that sandy's cloud field measure good 1,600 miles across. translation, that is the distance from memphis, tennessee, all the way to st. angeles. this hurricane is huge. i want to get to bonnie schnader here with -- in addition to the size here, you read so much about this storm, and everyone seems to use the word "historic." historic storm. >> it is. late october, we're talking about a hurricane hitting some major metropolitan areas of the east coast.

so many things have to happen for that to occur. and now they're off happening. let's look at this superstorm, sandy. so here's sandy, you see off the coast of north carolina. and even though we're getting the impacts now with heavy rain, the actual center still offshore. high pressure to the east over the ocean. then a really deep trough of low pressure coming from the west. normally you'd think, well, this will just push it off shore. it's doing the opposite, injecting. like a fuel injection. it's giving it more energy to pull it back on to shore. that's part of what's happening. and not only that because it will come on shore, we know that. behind it, you have some super strong cold air wrapping in behind the hurricane. so it's a hurricane that will eventually bring cold air and snow, brooke. an amazing meets logical dynamic -- meteorological dynamic situation that's unprecedented and really dangerous. millions could lose power from one or